


Battle Royal

by jcnyoung



Category: EXO (Band), NCT (Band), SHINee
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Death, Fights, M/M, Major Character Injury, Psychological Drama, Psychological Horror, Survival
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-03-22
Packaged: 2018-10-09 09:24:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10408995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jcnyoung/pseuds/jcnyoung
Summary: “The goal is to eliminate everyone else and be the last one left.”“By eliminate, do you mean…?”“I mean that you will kill each other of course!”How far would you go to save your own life?EXO, SHINee and NCT are forced to participate in a game where only one single person can win. Trapped inside a forest with only a bottle of water, some bread and a weapon they need to fight for their survival. Who loses against his fear first and who will stay sane for the longest time?[Survival game AU]





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is only a translation of a German fan fiction.  
> And as written in the warnings, there will be character deaths and not just one or two, so read at your own risk!!

"The current situation is very serious, Sir" the secretary hesitantly said as he nervously moved his glasses into the right position.  
Lee Soonam leaned on the table and cramped his fingers. 

"The new SHINee album has less sales than ever. It seemed like the fans came together and told each other to not buy their album. They do not want to accept the fact that Jonghyun was not participating in the “Why so serious?” music video. The video itself has an incredibly small amount of views as well compared to SHINee’s other MV's and the song is also falling down on iTunes day by day", the secretary continued and it was clearly visible how uncomfortable he felt as he told his boss about the news.  
Lee Soonam didn't respond anything nor did he react. He just stared at the wall with a blank face.  
Nervously coughing the secretary continued: "And that is sadly not everything yet.... ".  
Still no reaction from Soonam. 

The secretary kept talking: "There was a real mess in Europe, Australia and America. NCTzens were furious with rage over the way how NTC's managers tried to maintain NCT's flawless image during their Vlives whenever they started to get too comfortable and exhibited unsuitable behavior. The mail box of SME is filled with hate letters addressed to you, Sir, and the responsible managers and on top of that the views of our project NCT LIFE in Bangkok dropped drastically during the past weeks.”  
Lee Soonam stood up and walked up and down inside his small business room. The eyes of his secretary worriedly followed his movements. "And I am still not done…" The secretary mumbled abashed.  
Soonam stopped moving for a few seconds still not looking at him. His halt was a sign for his secretary to continue. 

"It is about EXO... You still remember that one time when there was a big mess right after their one year anniversary because EXO did not have a comeback for more than a year already? Well.. The anger changed into disinterest. Some, no, a lot of EXO-Ls said that EXO got quite boring and the consequence was a strong fall of the sales." 

Soonam nodded slowly taking out his hands to crack his knuckles. ‘He still seems to be calm’ the secretary thought to himself until his boss turned around and his deep red face showed, contorted and cramped because of his anger. Soonam suddenly took a folder from his table the next second and threw it across the room. It smashed against the door and fell down losing all the documents which were carefully sorted inside of it before.  
"WHAT ARE THEY ACTUALLY THINKING?!” he yelled "That it is easy to lead such a big entertainment?! That I can take care of every fucking wish they have?! You always have to leave some things behind when you're successful."  
"Yes Sir, you are totally right" the secretary answered but Soonam didn't even pay attention to him anymore.  
"I’m the bad one now just because I do my job?!" Soonam continued shouting "They should be thankful that bands like SHINee and EXO even exist!! How would they satisfy their thirst for Asian men then huh? They should be grateful to me for giving them these boys instead of trying to bash me. If I waited until Jonghyun left the hospital to film the MV then we would have needed to postpone the MV release date and then they'd be unsatisfied too, right? You can never make those fans happy. No matter what you do for them. EXO is a big group which is still at the beginning of their great career. Everything needs its time. And NCT needs to know how to behave in front of the camera, their managers were barely doing their job but of course those useless teenagers know everything better anyway."  
His secretary nodded in approval.

Soonman took a deep breath: "But why getting angry? They won't be able to leave it behind anyway. Kpop is like oxygen to them. They need it to breath. To survive. These sick fangirls can't survive a week without getting news about their idols. I give them four days. Bullshit, I give them one day. After that they'll be back craving and begging on their knees for albums of their so loved and needed idols."  
The secretary cleared his throat as quiet as possible and bit his lip anxiously before he started to speak again: “To be honest, Sir, the diversity of Kpop bands raised so much during the past years that it would not be a problem for these girls to stan a new group. The competing entertainments are offering them enough other bands.”

Soonam stared at his fellow employer for a while. Then he pressed his lips together until they were as thin as a line. ”Oh, so is that the case? They are dropping their favorites for others? Do the men they admired for so long suddenly not matter anymore? I don’t think so.” 

Soonam started to walk up and down his office again.  
“We just need to remind them again how important their biases are for them. And when do people notice how much they loved something but didn’t appreciate it enough?” Soonam suddenly said to his secretary who jumped a bit out of surprise.  
"Uhm…when it is gone, Sir?”  
“Exactly!” the CEO responded and a dirty smirk appeared on his face sending a shiver down his secretary’s spine.  
“You want to disband SHINEE, EXO and NCT, Sir?”  
Soonam shook his head.  
“That would be way too harmless. The fans need to regret what they did. And they will regret it when their idols need to pay for the mistakes they, the fans, did. Because you know what? They will pay with their lives.”

 

 

The bus was pretty full. Twenty-eight people. SHINEE, EXO and NCT. Every single seat was taken. Johnny wondered why the bands didn’t take separate buses like usual but it’s not like he had a problem with that. He liked all of the fellow SM idols. Everyone was talented and nice but it was still weird. He bent forward to look out of the window past Sicheng who sat next to him. Johnny still didn’t know where they were driving to because no one could really tell him the answer. Not even Doyoung or Taeyong. Everything he knew was that there is going to be a big concert hall called BR where they all were supposed to perform. His manager said that it was going to be a quite long drive although he couldn’t really say where that so called BR hall was as well. 

Nevertheless, they drove pretty long already and most of them were asleep already, others were about to fall asleep and then there were some exceptions who were still wide awake and excited. Yuta, Yukhei, Kibum and Chanyeol for example, who partly entertained the person they sat next to, partly the entire bus.  
Johnny glanced at Sicheng who calmly sat there with crossed arms and listened to music. His eyes were closed but Johnny knew that he didn’t sleep yet. He kept wandering with his gaze through the entire bus. Up front, right behind the bus driver, he could see Luhan who was leaning against Sehun. They were somehow cute. Johnny didn’t know if the rumors about them dating were true but the thought of them being together was cute in his opinion. 

 

The sun slowly started to sink outside which proofed that they have been driving for more than just three or four hours, since they left their dorms early in the morning already. After some time Johnny started to get tired too. He yawned widely before leaning against Sichengs shoulder. His eyes were heavy, just like his arms, legs and head. Was he just imagining it or did the commotion from before suddenly vanish? No voices, no music, no singing. Johnny would have turned around to check it but he didn’t have enough energy to do so anymore. Even the noise the bus made muffled and he was asleep shortly after.

 

 

 

“...dae. Jongdae? Are you awake?” Minseok asked and nudged the younger one next to him.  
Jongdae opened his eyes reluctantly and looked around. They still sat in the bus but with the difference that the bus didn’t drove anymore. It stood still. And it was bright outside already. Did he really sleep through the entire night? After all he fell asleep when it started to get dark. Did they finally arrive at their destination? The others around them started to wake up as well one by one.  
“Where are we?” Jongdae asked.  
Minseok looked out of the window. “I don’t know. Looks like a huge empty place. Oh, over there is a building, maybe it’s the BR hall?” 

Jongdae sat upright. His limbs still felt a bit tense, as if he spent hours in an uncomfortable position. Then he looked outside. There was indeed a massive parking lot but over all this entire place looked pretty lifeless. As if no one would live anywhere around here. All he could see was the beginning of a thick forest some hundred meters away. And then there was that shabby old building. The construction kind of reminded him of a barrack.  
Suddenly it started to get noisy inside the bus. Seems like everyone was awake by now. 

“Where are we?”  
“Did we finally arrive?”  
“What kind of place is this?”  
“Did I really sleep this long?”  
The entire tumult got interrupted as soon as the door of the bus opened and a, to the fright of everyone, uniformed and armed man entered it. Everyone stood up immediately to bow and muttered an intimidated greeting.  
“Get out!” the man ordered without any greeting.  
The idols exchanged confused glances.  
“Sir, where exactly are we?” Ten asked cautiously.  
“No questions!” The soldiers barked and Ten winced at the strict tone of his voice.  
“But..are we in danger?” Junmyeon quietly asked and looked confused at the long thin gun.  
Suddenly it pointed directly at the leader.  
“I said no questions and now get out!!” he growled.  
Junymeon stared aghast at the weapon and some others held their breath out of surprise. Was this an attack? Yuta stood on his toes to get a better sight.  
It took some time until Junmyeon freed him his rigidity and started to leave the bus under the glare of the man. The other ones followed him hesitantly.  
“What the hell is going on?” Kun whispered to Yuta who only shrugged with his shoulder.  
He was as clueless as everyone else. The eyes of that armed guy were glued to them while they stepped out of the bus.  
“What the fuck does this bullshit mean?” Jaehyuns voice chimed from behind.  
The eyes of the guy closed to small slits.  
“Are you all deaf? I said no questions!”  
“We understood you” Jaehyun contradicted. “But who are you anyway to think that you could order us around like that?”

_Bang._

Startled, everyone turned around from Jaehyun to the soldier. He shot a hole into the roof of the bus. Yuta, who stood right under it, stared through it with an open mouth. The blue, cloudless sky extended above his head. Everyone went dead silent. 

Within seconds everyone left the bus and stood anxiously in a crowd.  
“Forward!” the man commanded and pointed at the shabby building.  
The group slowly moved towards it. Yuta noticed how everyone tried to get answers from their leaders but they were just as clueless as everyone else. Probably everyone had the same questions.  
Where were they? Why were they here? Who the heck was that guy? Why did he have a gun? What happened to the concert and where were their managers?  
The giant metallic door got opened from the inside as soon as they arrived at the building. What awaited them there were even more armed camouflage battle dress suited men. None of them looked even once at the idols but just straight ahead. Didn’t seem like they were fans.  
Surrounded and intimidated by all these gun carriers the boys got pushed towards the room at the end of the hallway. The room kind of looked like a huge classroom. There weren’t neither chairs nor tables but there was a blackboard. The windows were covered with curtains. In front of the curtains were a bunch of backpacks, all of them in black. There were 28 backpacks to be exact. On the other side of the room were some doors. What did this all mean?  
“Line up in one row!” someone behind them suddenly barked.  
Startled, they all did as they were commanded. They might ran into each other every now and then but eventually managed to form one row. The door opened and even more soldiers entered the room. One of them held a big box.  
Yuta stood approximately in the middle of the line between Kun and Yukhei. He bent a bit forward to get a better sight of what was going on. At the end of the row was Ten. The Soldier with the box and another man one stood directly in front of him. You could clearly see that he was scared but he still managed to look into the eyes of the guy with the box.  
“Unbutton the shirt!” he commanded and everyone winced.  
Nobody made an attempt to unbutton their shirt.  
“Unbutton you shirt, I have to get close to your neck.” He explained.  
His voice was terrifying but he still seemed to be nicer than the psycho in the bus. Ten reacted immediately and unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt to expose his neck. The soldier grabbed into the box and took something out but Yuta couldn't figure out what it was from his position. Then the soldier put it around Tens throat and a quiet buzz could be heard. The next one in line was Taeil who exposed his neck without any resistance as well and the soldier repeated the progress. And like that he went through the entire row until he reached Yuta. Actually, Yuta didn’t want to wear such a thing but the gun on the belt of that man scared the shit out of him. The thing which the soldier put around his neck was some kind of metal choker with a small red lamp at the front. Both ends got held against each other and then the small buzz chimed and the choker was an unmitigated circle which couldn’t be opened anymore. The cold metal burned on Yutas skin and he actually wanted to wince but he didn’t have the courage to. What the hell was that? What was it for??  
The box got put aside as soon as everyone had that choker and the soldiers lined up against the wall. The idols looked at each other in confusion. What was going to happen now??

Well, that question got answered the next second since one of the doors at the back of the room busted open and a man followed by two other armed men entered the room. The man in front of them was no other than Lee Soonam. Yuta let out a breath of relief as soon as he recognized him. Everything’s going to be okay from now on. Apparently everyone else seemed to think the same since he could feel everyone next to him loosen a bit. They all bowed in front of their boss.  
“Sir, where are we?” Yixing asked curiously.  
“In a nature terrain at the utmost point of South Korea.” He answered with a light smile, the hands crossed behind his back.  
“Are we going to hold a concert here?” Yixing wanted to know.  
Soonam chuckled “Well, of course you can if you want, but there’s not even one single lonely soul living here who could watch your performance. The next city is 500km away.”  
The boys exchanged confused stares again.  
“And what are we doing here then?” Yixing wondered.  
Soonam smile disappeared “You are asking too many questions, Yixing. It’s annoying.”  
Yixing got silent. Their boss started to walk up and down.  
“My dear boys, I put endless effort and money in you and look at you now! You turned into great guys am I right?” he said as he looked at every single one of them.  
“Tell me, who do love the most in your life as an idol? Taking your family out. Junmyeon?”  
The named one startled out of surprise. “Uhm..our fans, Sir?” he answered hesitantly.  
Soonam nodded. “And, do you think that your fans love you too?” he continued asking.  
“Of course, or else they wouldn’t be our fans!” Taeyong said grinning.  
Soonam sent a sharp glare into his direction.  
“And what would you say if the fans, who admired you oh so much, suddenly stopped buying your music? Jinki?”  
The Shinee leader lifted his head and shrugged with his shoulders. “Well, it’s their decision. We can’t force them to buy our albums, Sir.”  
“So you’re saying that it would be okay if all of your fans suddenly stopped liking you?” Soonam replied standing directly in front of Jinki.  
The latter frowned “That would be sad of course but they have their reasons I guess…”  
“THE REASON” Soonam suddenly shouted and everyone winced again “WHY YOUR ALBUM ISNT SELLING, IS BECAUSE JONGHYUN DIDN’T PARTICIPATE IN THE MUSIC VIDEO!”  
“Some of them might have been disappointed, but everything will turn back to normal soon.” Kibum suddenly said quietly.  
The CEO walked towards Kibum while glaring at him. “So you think that they will turn back to you again after their anger vanished?”  
Kibum nodded slightly.  
“Well, I don’t think so.” Soonam growled. “And do you know why? Because these fans don’t need Shinee. There are enough other bands which they can stan. Big bang, BTS, Block B, Got7, Seventeen and these are just the ones I remember right now. There are thousands of other bands out there. They don’t need Shinee or Super Junior or Exo.”  
“We all have very loyal fans.” Taeyong said. “I’m convinced that they won’t leave us that easily. They will come back for sure. We just need to wait a bit. And I think that that we deserve the chance to wa-“  
“You’re just worth as much as you earn for me!” Soonam suddenly interrupted him with a loud voice. “And at the moment I’m not getting any money out of you. Literally nothing. You aren’t worth anything. You are useless and cost me a shit ton of money!!”  
Everyone stayed silent.  
“And what are we supposed to do now?” Taemin asked quietly.  
Soonam looked at him for a long time and then a smirk appeared on his face.  
“Do you know what the problem is? There are just too many K-pop idols. The easy principle of the social market economy is: The demands will go back if there are too many offers. And when do the demands will increase again? Jungwoo?”  
Jungwoo whimpered quietly as he got addressed so suddenly and got even smaller “When…when the offers decrease, Sir?”  
“Exactly. And we need to ensure that. I had a quite nice idea on how to realize that.” Soonam said.  
He went to the big blackboard and wrote Battle Royal on it. Small whispers went through the row. Battle Royal, what was that?  
“SILENCE!” one of the soldiers yelled and everyone went silent instantly.  
“You probably wonder what Battle Royal is, right? That’s the name of the TV show you all are going to participate in. It’s a game where just one single person out of you all can win. The fans will be extremely interested in this show and along the way they will finally realize what they actually lost when they stopped stanning you.”  
A TV show? A game? That actually sounded good.  
“What kind of game is that?” Jaehyun asked with arms crossed in front of his chest.  
“Oh, it’s really easy.” Soonam said and pretended to wipe dust off his arm. “The goal is to eliminate everyone else and to be the last one left.”  
“By eliminate, do you mean…?” Junmyeon asked hesitantly.  
A broad smirk appeared on Soonams face “I meant that you will _kill_ the other participants of course!”

 

 

 

 

Silence. Absolute silence. You could have heard a pin falling down. No one said a single word. Lee Soonams words repeated inside their heads over and over again but they still couldn’t progress what he said just now. _I meant that you will kill each other of course!_ Did he really expect them to kill each other? Their own co-workers, band mates, friends, second family? What kind of sick bullshit was going on ?? A loud laugh interrupted the silence.  
“What kind of fucking joke is this?” Doyoung chuckled.  
Judging from his face he really seemed to think that this all would be a bad joke. “Are we here with some kind of hidden camera?”  
There others started looking for a hidden camera.  
“This isn’t a joke, Doyoung.” Soonam said serious.  
“Of course not” he mocked. “As if you really would want to kill us. You do know that you can be arrested for that?”  
Soonam rolled with his eyes “ _I_ won’t be the one killing you. _You_ will be the murderers.”  
“This is ridiculous. I want to talk to our manager.”  
“Your manager? Sure, go and bring us Yoojin.” Soonam said to one of the soldiers who immediately left the room. 

The boys looked at each other. Doyoung seemed to be pretty shocked about this situation, but who wasn’t anyway?  
“Ah, there he is!” Soonam said and everyone turned their head to the door. A big table covered by a white sheet got shoved into the room. Where is their manager? Wasn’t he supposed to come? What was up with this table?  
“Come here, Doyoung.”  
Doyoung obeyed. The others really admired him for his intrepidity. He stood directly in front of the table now and stared at it in confusion.  
“You want to talk to you manager? There he is.” Soonam said laughing as he pulled down the cover.  
Doyoung actually had a suspicion already but didn’t react fast enough to look away before the terrible disfigured body of their manager got exposed. He was covered in blood and stared directly at him with dead eyes. 

Doyoung jumped back and everyone else started to scream and run towards the main door. This wasn’t a joke. This man was real and he was dead. NCT's manager got killed. Doyoung has never seen a corpse before and he used to be glad about that. He felt sick, really sick. Kun next to him gripped his arm and dragged him to the door but of course it was locked. The boys stood closely next to each other pushed into a corner staring at Soonam who smiled contently.  
“WHY DID YOU DO THAT?” Doyoung yelled but Soonam just casually shrugged with his shoulder.  
“He was against Battle Royal so I had to get him out of the way before he could tell the media about my idea. The same goes for the others managers by the way.” He explained calmly.  
What? All of their managers were dead? The men who were always there for them and supported them? Dead? Killed by Soonam?  
“YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Jonghyun suddenly yelled what everyone thought but he was the only one who was brave enough to say it out loud.  
“I just did what was necessary.”  
“That was definitely not necessary! You’re such a sick bastard! You killed innocent people, god damn it!”  
Jinki knew that he had to stop Jonghyun before Soonam would lose his patience so he took his arm but Jonghyun just shoved Jinki off.  
“You murdered three innocent men and now you want us to slaughter each other? Fuck yourself, psycho!”  
“Jonghyun, it’s enough…” Jinki whispered but Jonghyun already ran towards Soonam ready to punch him into the face.  
“I thought of you as an honorable man! I will kill y-“ 

_Bang_

Jinki couldn’t progress fast enough what happened just now. Jonghyun fell onto the ground not moving an inch anymore. Blood slowly started to flow out of his wound all over the floor and his fellow members ran towards his dead body. The bullet hit directly through his head. No question, he was immediately dead.  
“No, no, what did you do??” Kibum cried and moved the hair out of his face.  
“We need an ambulance!!” Taemin screamed “Please!!!”  
Jinki knew already that the ambulance wouldn’t help much considering the fact that half of his head got blown away.  
“You bastard! You just killed an innocent boy!” Doyoung shouted.  
Soonam stared blankly at Jonghyuns corpse, shrugged and walked to the blackboard.  
“I will explain the rules now so listen closely if you don’t want to die after the first 5 seconds.”  
Everyone looked at him aghast. Their friend died just now and now he wants them to listen to these rules not even caring about Jonghyun?  
“Everyone will get a backpack. They contain food, water, a clock and a weapon. Every backpack has a different weapon. It depends on your luck only if you get a good weapon. But getting a less dangerous weapon actually doesn’t mean that it’s not useful, it depends on your skill and if you know how to use it for your advantage. Just try your best.” he explained.  
“You will leave this building one after another in alphabetical order.” Soonam opened up the blackboard and showed a list with all of the 28 names.  
“Everyone has a number. You should remember your own number because we’re going to say your number and not your name when we address something to you during the game like your position for example. Is there still something unclear?”  
No one said anything. The Shinee members where still gathered about Jonghyuns body and mourned their dead friend.  
“These are the basic rules. The 28th person wins when 27 of you are dead. He will leave this area as the only survivor and start a solo career at SM.”  
As if someone would still want to work for SM after going through this hell.  
“Another rule is that you are only allowed to attack each other but none of the guardians. They are expensive so don’t hurt them, okay?” Soonam said grinning.  
Was that supposed to be funny?  
“You’re also not allowed to wait outside and kill the ones who just entered the playground. That would be unfair. The game only begins when the last one left the building and is at least one kilometer away from it. Who kills earlier will get punished. Got it?”  
“Punished?” Doyoung sneered “What do you mean with punished? Isn’t this enough as a punishment already? You’re hiding us in an enclosure and expect us to kill each other like animals. Do you really think that any of us will participate in that?”  
Soonam smirked “Oh yes. You all will participate in this sooner or later because the human is just another animal anyway. The fear for your own life will win in the end.” He said laughing.  
“How can you think that this is funny??” Doyoung shouted and started to run towards him.

_Bang._

And like this the second person fell drop dead onto the floor.  
“DOYOUNG !”  
“NO!”  
“Oh god...”  
The entire band ran over to Doyoung but there was nothing to save anymore.  
“Stop shooting people senselessly already!” Yuta shouted with tear after tear rolling down his face.  
Taeyong turned Doyoung on his back. A big hole pierced through his chest, just like the one in the bus.

Taeil was the only NCT member who didn’t kneel on the floor. He stood next to the corpse and just stared at it with a blank face. Then he slowly turned around to Soonam.  
“You monster” his voice trembled because of his anger “I will kill you” he shouted but before he could even take a step forward he got held back by soldiers already.  
He might have been strong but even someone like Taeil wouldn’t have been able to stand a chance against these men.  
“Taeil, I explained the rules just now.” Soonam said almost disappointed “You’re not allowed to attack my Guardians and I thought that it was obvious that attacking me is forbidden as well. Well, at least this is a great opportunity to demonstrate what these metal chokers are for!”  
Everyone instinctively grabbed around their neck.

“I think that I don’t need to say that you won’t be able to get rid of them no matter what you do. But something special about them is that they can explode!” he explained excitedly.  
“Your choker will start blinking whenever you violate against one of my named rules. Then you will have twenty seconds before your head will explode. The same happens when you attack someone before the game has really started. Ah! And there’s another rule. This entire game will be streamed live in the television so maybe you will even see cameras every now and then. You’re not allowed to destroy them or speak directly to the people watching or else _bang_. And there’s also a time limit so it won’t get boring. If no one dies within six hours then one of the chokers will randomly explode. And this show is supposed to be entertaining for younger audience as well so no immoral behavior, okay? ” He looked into the crowd but no one answered him.  
“So, where did I stop?” he continued and his gaze fell upon Taeil.  
“Ah right. Taeil, you broke one of the rules, so…” he took a small remote control out of his pocket “you all better say goodbye to him now.”  
His eyes widened and he turned around to his members looking at them in fear as a red light suddenly appeared on his choker and started beeping.  
_Biep. Biep. Biep._  
“Help me” Taeil whispered.  
Sicheng walked towards him but he obviously didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Cold sweat was running down Taeils back as he painfully realized how his life is going to end in some seconds.  
_Biepbiep. Biepbiep._  
“SICHENG” Taeil yelled and the addressed one started crying because he couldn’t do anything.  
“Please take the choker off!” Sicheng begged Soonam who just watched Taeil desperately trying to rip the choker off.  
Tears were endlessly flowing down his face now and panic was written all it. Everyone else could only stand there and watch. Nobody moved an inch.  
“PLEASE, JUST HELP ME, PLEASE! I BEG YOU!!!” Taeil was on his knees begging for his life as the last five seconds approached  
_Biepbiepbiepbiepbiepbiepbiepbiiiiiieeep._  
The choker exploded the next second tearing Taeils head apart. Everyone stood still. Blood was spattered everywhere. It was on the wall, on the clothes, on their skin. 

 

 

“Great. So everything is said and shown now. We can finally start!” Soonam announced joyfully. He went to the blackboard and crossed three names out of the list.  
7\. Kim Dongyoung, 9. Kim Jonghyun and 19. Moon Taeil.  
“It’s proceeding quite fast” he realized “not even an hour has passed yet and three participants are gone already. But lets not waste any more time, so let’s start.”  
No one said a word. No one wanted to be the next one blowing up after all what has happened. While some NCT members still stood around Doyoung, some others knelt next to Taeil. The sight of his tattered head gave the other members nausea. They didn’t expect someone as strong as him to die that fast. But he was dead. Just like Doyoung and Jonghyun. NCT lost two members in such a short period of time already and a lot more were about to follow.  
Soonam looked at the list “1. Byun Baekhyun. Here you go!”  
Everyone looked at the small singer who hid behind Chanyeol. He didn’t move until one of the soldiers unlocked his gun. Another soldier threw a bag at him and Soonam showed him through which door he had to leave.  
“Good luck, Baekhyun and remember. The game only starts when you hear the announcement, understood?” Soonam said.  
Baehyun nodded hesitantly. He looked like he was about to vomit. He clasped the backpack, threw one last glance at his fellow band mates and then left the building. Soonam called the next one as soon as the door closed.  
“Choi Minho.”  
The addressed one looked up. His eyes were red and swollen. He stood up slowly, looked at Jinki first, then at Kibum and then at Taemin and lastly at Jonghyuns corpse. He took a backpack and left the building.  
“Do Kyungsoo.”  
Kyungsoo, who was looking at Doyoung the entire time, stood up. Jongin grabbed his hand and whimpered “Kyungsoo…” but the latter just patted his head softly before he walked away.  
A few people later it was Jaehyuns turn “Jung Yonooh.”  
He would have good chances in this game since he had a good body and was quite athletic, but to everyone’s surprise Jaehyun threw the backpack, which he just received, aside  
“I won’t kill anybody! You can forget that.”  
Soonam sighed “But you have to die then.”  
“I don’t care. I’d rather die than turn into a cruel monster like you. Go to hell.”  
And with these words he already left the building leaving his backpack behind. The others admired him for his courage. The chance of survival wasn’t very high for any of them but Jaehyun just threw away the only thing which could have kept him alive.  
The rest got called one after another and no one said a word but Yuta spit in front of Soonams feet before he walked through the door. There were just a few left, four people to be exact.  
“Seo Youngho.”  
Johnny slowly lifted his head. His face was distorted with rage and he didn’t leave his spot before closing Doyoungs eyes. He looked way more peaceful now, as if he was sleeping. If you ignored the hole in his chest of course. Then he walked past Taeils dead body, took his backpack and walked silently towards the door. But before he left he turned around and looked incisively at Yukhei. Did he want to tell him something? But before he could answer his glance he had left the room already.  
“Wong Yukhei, it’s your turn.”  
With an uncomfortable feeling he walked towards the soldier and took the bag. Soonam gave him an encouraging smile but he just looked away. He walked to the door without looking back at his two dead band members. The last two left were the Chinese Exo members Yixing and Yifan who watched him walking away. You could see how anxious they were. Yukhei gulped before he opened the door and walked outside. The smell of the forest surrounded him immediately as his lungs filled with oxygen and he could finally think straight again. The events just now hit him like a baseball bat. Two of his friends and his manager were dead. How did this happen? Yesterday they were still in their dorm talking about the concert which was supposed to be held today but now they are somewhere in nowhere about to kill each other?  
Yukhei felt horrible. He was about to vomit but then he realized that he still stood in front of the door. Wasn’t there a rule which forbid them to keep standing in front of the door? He started to run into the forest, tripping here and there. It was silent around him, you could only hear a bird chirping every now and then. But there wouldn’t be someone who suddenly started to kill the others right? Yukhei thought about a plan while he fought his way through the under-wood. There must have been a way to leave this area. Even if there was a fence or wall around it. There were so many athletic members who could escape easily. But it probably wasn’t that easy. His priority for now was to find the others. Didn’t Johnny give him a sign earlier? Did he want them to meet and discuss what they were supposed to do next?  
Yukhei suddenly remembered the backpack he carried. Didn’t they say that there was a weapon in it? He opened it and he found bread, a water bottle, a clock and… what was that? He pulled a long silver metal pole out of his bag. Was that a drain pipe? Was that supposed to be his weapon? Could you even hurt someone with this? Well, maybe if you hit with it strong enough but Yukhei actually still expected a… more spectacular weapon if he was honest. A sword or a gun for example.  
Suddenly he heard a loud crack and winced. He looked around. Where did that sound come from? But he couldn't assign the source of that sound. But then a voice chimed. It was a bit distorted and sounded like an announcement in a high school.  
“So, the last one left the building just now.” It was Soonam.  
“Hopefully you know what this means. You’re live from now on so behave well. Make SM proud. Good luck to you all, you will need it because I will proudly announce now:”  
He made a dramatic break. Donghee bit his lip. How could he prevent Soonam from saying the next sentence?  
“Let the game begin!” 

 

_01\. Byun Baekhyun_  
_02\. Choi Minho_  
_03\. Do Kyungsoo_  
_04\. Dong Sicheng_  
_05\. Huang Zitao_  
_06\. Jung Yonooh_  
_~~07\. Kim Doyoung~~_  
_08\. Kim Jongdae_  
_~~09\. Kim Jonghyun~~_  
_10\. Kim Jongin_  
_11\. Kim Jungwoo_  
_12\. Kim Junmyeon_  
_13\. Kim Kibum_  
_14\. Kim Minseok_  
_15\. Lee Taeyong_  
_16\. Lee Jinki_  
_17\. Lee Taemin_  
_18\. Lu Han_  
_~~19\. Moon Taeil~~_  
_20\. Nakamoto Yuta_  
_21\. Oh Sehun_  
_22\. Park Chanyeol_  
_23\. Ten_  
_24\. Qian Kun_  
_25\. Seo Youngho_  
_26\. Wong Yukhei_  
_27\. Wu Yi Fan_  
_28\. Zhang Yi Xing_

 

**25 Idols left**

**Author's Note:**

> So as I said before, the original story wasn't written by me but by Jihyun which means that this story does not belong to me. It's called "Battle Royale" (the author got inspired by a book called Battle Royale and not by The Tributes of Panem as some of you may think) and got uploaded on fanfiktion.de like 4 years ago.  
> I spontaneously decided to translate it (I asked for their permission ofc) and honestly, I didn't think that writing 6k words would consume so much of my time but I started it so I'm going to pull through until the end (hopefully). 
> 
> Btw English isn't my first language (it's not even my second language) so there are probably a couple of grammar mistakes so please be so kind and point them out if you discover any! 
> 
> Another very important notice. The original story features EXO, SHINee and Super Junior but I decided to replace Super Junior by NCT (excluding NCT Dream). Tbh I had a little trouble during the progress of exchanging the content about SHINee by content about NCT since the story takes part around 2013 meanwhile NCT only debuted in 2016, so please ignore that the secretary talks about the why so serious MV and NCT LIFE in Osaka at the same time although these things are 3 years apart ! Just pretend like NCT exists since 2013 already. That will be the only thing i change about this story, everything else will be translated directly from german.  
> That's all for now.


End file.
